Gajar Halwa/ Carrot Pudding

This is one of my favorite desserts. Ever since I discovered grating in the food processor, its the easiest dessert to prepare. Its also an easily scalable dessert and is a great potluck dish. However, it has been a while since I made it. So when I realised that I had a tonne of carrots, I thought why not make gajar halwa. Yum yum yum is how I would describe the end result.

The best part of the recipe is that you can easily adjust the proportions of ingredients to make it a healthier dish or you can make the following recipe for the traditional delicious dessert.

Ingredients
4-5 cups grated carrots
1/4-1/2 cup ghee/clarified butter
1 cups whole milk
2-3 tbsps ricotta cheese
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/8 cup raisins - soak this in a little water
1/8 cup roasted cashews
3/4- 1 cup sugar (to taste)

Method
Heat a large pan and add the ghee and the carrots to it. Stir, cover and cook this till the carrot is cooked and softened. Keep stirring occasionally so that the carrots do not stick to the bottom. At this stage, add the ricotta cheese and cook this till the ricotta cheese dries up a little. Then add the milk to the carrots mixture a little at a time and cook this till it evaporates. At this stage, add the sugar and cook till the mixture is cooked to a halwa consistency. Add the cardamom powder, the raisins and the cashews.

Tips
Soaking the raisins makes them plump up, enhancing the taste. The ricotta cheese helps provide the "mava" taste and texture.